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Everything about Sustainable Living totally explained

Sustainable living refers to an individual or society's lifestyle that can be sustained with limited exhaustion of natural resources. Its adherents most often hold true sustainability as a goal or guide, and make lifestyle tradeoffs, such as transport, housing, energy, and diet favor sustainability. Most often these tradeoffs involve making more environmentally-friendly lifestyle choices. Lester R. Brown concisely summarizes the situation as "sustaining progress depends on shifting from a fossil fuel-based, automobile-centered, economy to a renewable energy-based, diversified transport, reuse/recycle economy".

Overview

Sustainable living is a sub-division of sustainability where the prerequisites of a modern, industrialized society are left unexercised by choice for a variety of reasons. The practices and motives overlap somewhat between the movements. Sustainable living in urban areas requires a sustainable urban infrastructure. Self-sufficiency is the principle of consuming only those things produced by oneself or one's family. It is generally a stricter lifestyle than a sustainable lifestyle in that an effort is made to limit trade with others regardless of the sustainability of such trade. Permaculture is a design philosophy that emphasises sustainability in land use and landscaping, as well as fields such as architecture and economics (for example, encouraging the spread of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS)). In terms of agriculture, food production and building materials, permaculture emphasises use of well-adapted plant materials that require few inputs, especially trees, hemp, and other edible and useful perennials.
   Some people are opposed to furthering mechanization and technology in society for any reason. Adherents of sustainable living, in contrast, are willing to accept appropriate technology.

Carbon footprint

An individual's carbon footprint represents the amount of carbon required to maintain that person's lifestyle, and what impact that lifestyle has on the earth. A higher footprint represents a lifestyle that's less sustainable, and a lower footprint represents a more sustainable lifestyle. Most carbon footprint websites have suggestions for decreasing a person's carbon footprint, and therefore increasing their sustainability.

History

  • 1954 The publication of Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing is the modern-day beginning of the sustainability movement. The book fostered the back-to-the-land movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As the back-to-the-landers realized the difficulty of copying the Nearings' lifestyle, they returned to more conventional lifestyles yet incorporated self-sufficiency where they could.
  • 1962 The publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was another major milestone in the sustainability movement.
  • 1972 Donella Meadows wrote the international bestselling book The Limits to Growth, which reported on a study of long-term global trends in population, economics, and the environment. It sold millions of copies and was translated into 28 languages.
  • 1973E. F. Schumacher published a collection of essays on shifting towards sustainable living through the appropriate use of technology in his book Small Is Beautiful.
  • The United Nations had an a series of conferences called Earth Summit in 1992, 1997, and 2002. Each of these conferences focused on increasing sustainability within societies, with the goal of conserving the world's natural resources.
  • 2007 the U.N. published Sustainable Consumption and Production, Promoting Climate-Friendly Household Consumption Patterns, a paper that promotes sustainable lifestyles in communities and homes.Further Information

    Get more info on 'Sustainable Living'.


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